Tex the Pontificator

By passing Obamacare despite overwhelming public opposition, Congressional Democrats declared war on the American people. As Dan Rostenkowski was chased through the streets of Chicago, may Congressional Democrats be chased through every street in every city in America from now until November when they are returned to live among us proletariat.

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Labels: Obamacare

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: An Open Letter to Jane Hamsher
Professor William Jacobson is a righty blogger and a vocal opponent of Obamacare. Jane Hamsher is a lefty blogger who also opposes Obamacare, though not necessarily for the same reasons as Jacobson. Jacobson offers Hamsher a proposition:

I want the Senate bill killed for my reasons, and you for yours. Now is your chance to kill the bill by helping elect Scott Brown [a Massachusetts Republican Senatorial candidate who, if elected, would deny Reid his 60 votes].

The problem for Hamsher is this would require her to elevate opposition to Obamacare over loyalty to the Democrats.

Bill made Jane an offer
To help get what she wants.
If she accepts his proffer,
She’ll suffer Lefty taunts.

So which is more important,
She’s got to make the call,
Good left-wing deportment
Or winning in the brawl?

Obamacare is noxious.
We need it to be stopped.
It should not make her bilious
To work to get it chopped.

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Labels: Obamacare

C-Span has asked to televise the House and Senate Conference intended to reconcile the health care bills. But allowing that would interfere with Nancy Pelosi's plan to keep the public ignorant until it's too late.

Nancy Pelosi,
Ever the goat, she,
Plans to pass health care in secret.
Though C-Span complained,
Spotlighting her train,
A secret Pelosi will keep it.

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Labels: Congress, Nancy Pelosi, Obamacare

And Obama's Christmas present to the American people is the theft of their freedom. I'd prefer the Grinch, who stole only Christmas.

Most Americans
Out in America
Liked freedom a lot.
But Obama,
Who liked to rule over Americans,
Did not.
Obama hated freedom, the American ideal.
We all may wonder why, but he did it with great zeal.
Perhaps it was because he always tilted left,
And in using thuggish tactics, was unusually deft.
Another reason is the man wants to have more power,
That when he treads we common folk should bow and quake and cower.
But
Whatever his motives,
Thuggishness or power,
When thinking of our freedom, Obama would just glower.

Obama thought,
And thought and thought,
And came up with a plan.
He'd pretend to give us all a gift,
Which would give his power grab some lift.
Yes, he can!
He told the people healthcare was their right,
And he could give it to them all; he has the might.
He didn't tell them what it cost,
Or in the end what they'd have lost.
He promised them that, in his care, they'd all be fine
With the right to wait in line.
But
You bought the hope, so heave a sigh
And look Obama in the eye, and buck up now and don't you cry,
For he'll decide just when you die.
Your right to life has gone bye-bye.

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Labels: Congress, doggerel, Obamacare

Come running, running,
Reid is so cunning,
He wants to take over health care.
If we’ll just suckle the federal teat,
Republicans won’t have a prayer.

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Labels: doggerel, Obamacare

According to My Way news:

Senate leaders working round the clock trying to finalize their 10-year, nearly $1 trillion bill in time for a final vote on Christmas Eve.

Final vote on Christmas Eve. This is shaping up to be the worst Christmas in my memory.

You better watch out
Just keep a sharp eye.
Now don’t you doubt;
I would not lie.
Harry Reid is planning a vote.

He’s making a list
Of who’s a holdout.
He’s gonna use every ounce of his clout.
Harry Reid is planning a vote.

He’ll chase them down the hallways
And chase them down the street.
He knows just what to bribe them with,
And the man ain’t one bit meek.

Oh, you better watch out.
Just keep a sharp eye.
And don’t you doubt;
I would not lie.
Harry Reid is planning a vote.
Yes, Harry Reid is planning a vote.

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Labels: Congress, doggerel, Obamacare

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell alleges that Majority Leader Harry Reid is keeping the text of the latest Obamacare version secret while he tries to round up votes. From this we must conclude that the actual text of the bill is not germane to the "yes" vote of those whose votes Reid is able to get. Sheesh!

Voting on bills that haven’t been read
Just recently caused a kerfuffle.
We all laughed in scorn at what they all said,
At the tap dancers doing a shuffle.

But the text of Obamacare’s being kept secret;
Not even the staff gets to read it,
While Senator Harry stalks like an egret;
He’s got to get votes or concede it.

This pulls back the curtain on raw calculation,
The terms of the bill do not matter.
The merits be damned is the clear implication,
Remaining illusions just shatter.

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Labels: Congress, doggerel, Obamacare

MadKane has a post calling Joe Lieberman a traitor to the Democratic Party for his opposition to the so-called public-option part of Obamacare. Her characterization misses an important fact: Lieberman isn't a Democrat anymore. The voters of Connecticut denied him the Democratic nomination. In effect, the Democratic Party kicked him out. How can you be a traitor to an organization that you not only no longer belong to, but one that kicked you out?

According to Madeleine Kane,
Lieberman’s a traitor profane,
But the Dems kicked him out,
And now they just pout
That his seat the man still retained.

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Labels: Congress, doggerel, Obamacare

CNS News reports:

When asked by CNSNews.com what specific part of the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals must purchase health insurance, Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) pointed to the part of the Constitution that he says authorizes the federal government "to provide for the health, welfare and the defense of the country." In fact, the word "health" appears nowhere in the Constitution.

I wager Burris never before considered the constitutional foundation of Obamacare. It was enough for him that Democrats want the bill enacted.

Caligula sent a horse to the Senate,
But let’s give the monster a pass.
Burris doesn’t know the Constitution,
So Illinois sent a horse’s ass.

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Labels: Congress, doggerel, Obamacare

Politico reports on the Senate health care bill's proposed tax on so-called Cadillac plans:

The tax is designed to pay for reform and lower costs by making the so-called Cadillac plans less attractive for insurers to offer.

The Democrats tell us that we must believe
From private health care we must be reprieved.
I’ve always assumed they mean to imply
Public health care beats what we can buy.

It’s high-end health plans they now want to tax,
But not for the things that plans like that lack.
It’s high-end health plans they want to reduce;
It’s high-end health plans they deem an abuse.

With high end health plans the bar is too high;
Public health plans can’t reach for the sky.
Tear down the good things the people now have;
The poor public option will seem like a salve.

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Labels: doggerel, Obamacare

Politico reports:

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty . . . .

So not to put too fine a point on it:

Obama would surely respond with derision,
But when the thought is expressed with concision,
And when, on the murk, the sun has risen,
Obama's imposing a debtor's prison.

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Labels: doggerel, Obamacare

We're told that Medicare is great, and Obamacare will be just as great. But we know Medicare is stretched thin and will have to reduce costs. And Medicare covers only a small, albeit increasing, percentage of the population. When you drag in all the population, what is stretched thin will break.

The Democrats say Obamacare’s good,
For Medicare works just as it should.
Now Medicare starts at sixty-five,
A small percentage of who’s still alive.
A lot more people are paying in
Than are taking out benefits at the end.

But even with such a favorable ratio,
It’s not all rosey, though some may say so.
Medicare cuts what doctors are paid,
So doctors are cutting their Medicare trade,
But cutting what doctor’s are paid’s not enough.
What happens next is going to be rough.

The President says he’s going to cut waste.
Why drag you in first; why all the haste?
He’s got to pare back that which is covered.
He wants you locked in, before that’s discovered.
There may be treatments you think that you need,
But you will be told to diminish your greed.

When society needs to cut down on cost,
It’ll just be too bad that a few lives are lost.
Obamacare means, I tell you no lies,
That government sets who lives and who dies.
That can’t coexist with American freedom.
Madison and Jefferson! Go tell them we need them!

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Labels: doggerel, Obamacare

David Henderson reports: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is squelching the speech of insurance companies expressing concerns about Obamacare to their insureds. Many a liberal acquaintance were dismayed at George Bush's civil liberties shortcomings, but I don't recall a single incident of the Bush administration trying to silence its critics.

Being who I am, I provide some doggerel. What came to my mind was Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman, perhaps appropriate since we are being robbed not only of our money but also of our freedom.

Obamacare critics cry out; they desperately want to be heard.
They post their views on blogs and such, getting out the word.
The media ignore them studiously, hoping they’ll all go away,
And HHS comes censoring, censoring, censoring,
And HHS comes censoring,
Denying the critics their say.

Critics, it says, are misleading, confusing the proletariat.
Keep all the critics quiet, its says, round them up with a lariat.
It sends out threatening letters, abusing its government power
And the HHS is threatening, threatening, threatening,
And the HHS is threatening;
Beware the government’s glower

We’ve got to resist the thuggishness, asserting our right to be free.
They’re taking away all our freedoms, away from you and from me.
Recall that this is America; preserve its ideals when you vote,
Or they’ll drag you down into serfdom,
Down like a dog into serfdom,
With a government boot at your throat.

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Labels: cultural divide, doggerel, Obamacare

Many have warned to no avail
That social security's doomed to fail,
But stop despairing; lift the pall.
Obamacare will save us all.

You may think that Obamacare
And social security aren't a pair,
But Obamacare's to preserve your health,
So marvel here at Obama’s stealth.

Social security, you get when you’re old,
When Obamacare cuts back what's doled.
For social security, now don’t be dejected.
You just won’t live long while you collect it.

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Labels: doggerel, Obamacare, social security

Negative rights and positive rights are the dividing line.
Obama promises positive rights, offering things so fine.
He’ll give us all our health care and all our hearts desire,
If, in return, we’ll close our eyes and step into the fire,
For when the government gives us things, they’re not spun from thin air.
No, others must produce those things, and Barack will make them share.

There’s a word for when another takes the things that we produce,
And applies them to the taker’s thoughts of what’s a better use.
Conscripting labor from another is the vilest form of knavery.
We’ll find our labor has become nothing more than slavery.
If we don’t own what we produce, we own almost nothing.
We have just what they leave us with. Do not believe their puffing.

Negative rights are things that the government must not do,
Ways in which it’s not allowed to interfere with you.
Freedom of speech and of petition, such things they cannot stop,
If we insist on being free; we’ll know just what we’ve got,
But when they pass out goodies by taking things from others,
What we get was necessarily taken from our brothers.

Now if you think they’ll take from them, but not take things from you,
I’ve got a bridge to sell you, pal, a deal you’ll come to rue.
They see the proletariat as the class where we belong.
Trading freedom for state care is just a siren song.
If you are tempted to believe the state’s care will be great,
Ask Sitting Bull how it worked out; what was his people’s fate?

We can all be citizens, free and independent,
Or we can be just vassals, on the state dependent.
Freedom is quite costly, and it’s often very hard,
But you must throw it all away to choose to be a ward.
I know not what all may choose, freedom or dependence.
But as for me our negative rights are all that can defend us.

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Labels: Barack Obama, doggerel, Obamacare

Barack has got plans for you and for me,
But they’re not embraced by the bourgeoisie.
His spending and taxes will soon fill the bill.
Stagflation will pauper us, leave us with nil.
Just like in the song called "Government Cheese",
When we’re all beggars, we’re easily pleased.
A banana republic is how it will end,
With Barack as caudillo, an endless downtrend.

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Labels: Barack Obama, doggerel, Obamacare

Barack is nimble and he's quick.
He'll give you care when you are sick,
Unless, of course the cost's too high,
Which is when he'll let you die.

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Labels: Barack Obama, doggerel, Obamacare

[I]f the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service.

Giving a new perspective on the use of the word "internal" in the Internal Revenue Service.

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Labels: Obamacare

The Telegraph reports:

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

But fears of death panels in Obamacare are fear-mongering distortions? If the Dems want to hold up European health care systems are the model to which they aspire, do they not have to address the negative aspects of those systems?

Defenders of Obamacare will say it is my own personality defect that I cannot put aside such trivial concerns and rest assured that:

Obama loves me, this I know,
For Pelosi tells me so.
All of us to him belong
For we are weak and he is strong.

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Labels: Barack Obama, doggerel, Obamacare

Keith Hennessey writes of how poor leadership from the Obama administration has contributed to the legislative problems in enacting Obamacare.

I think much of the chaos we are seeing results from a combination of:

Presidential indecision about which path to take and a lack of preparedness for the different paths;

an ever-changing message from the White House;

and a flawed set of policies and substantive arguments to which American citizens are reacting harshly.

Contrast that with Lyndon Johnson's approach to getting Great Society legislation enacted. A consummate leader in the Senate, Johnson's personality and skill were major factors in the success of his legislative agenda. I was young and naive enough at the time to be excited about the quantity of reform legislation pouring out of Washington.

I am profoundly grateful that, unlike LBJ, Barack Obama never bothered with the drudge work of getting legislation enacted.

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Labels: Barack Obama, Obamacare